I groggily tried to focus on my wife’s voice and then at the television screen to watch the special report.

George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States and the first president I had cartooned, was gone.

I got up, went over to my kitchen table and began to draw the cartoon you see now. I knew exactly what I was going to do (trust me, that doesn’t happen often). This cartoon was going to be a bookend to the cartoon I created when Barbara Bush died. It was an idea I had thought of when he was so ill in April. But he was tough and bounced back. I tucked away the idea for a later date. Which was last night.

I quickly sketched President Bush, walking from his World War 2 TBM Avenger, as he was reunited with his family. His beloved wife, Barbara, was telling him, “We waited for you.”

Last April, when I heard the former first lady had passed away, I thought about how incredible her life had been. Then I thought about the one part of her life that would be now healed — and I drew her reuniting with her daughter Robin who had died from leukemia.

The cartoon caught the eye of Jenna Bush Hager who posted it on Instagram and used it on a very touching piece about her grandmother on the Today show. Then it went viral. Really, really viral.

Honestly, I was moved that the Bush family found comfort in it. But then the artwork took a life of its own. Parents who had lost children began contacting me. I received hundreds of emails, tweets, letters and phone messages from them. Each took time to share their story. As an artist, you pray that your artwork moves someone. I’ve drawn over 6,000 editorial cartoons. None had had that kind of impact. And I never thought it would happen again.

Until today.

Around midnight, I posted the cartoon on the Clarion Ledger’s website and shared it on my social media. Within an hour, media outlets were requesting to use it. Bret Baier from Fox News mentioned it on air. CNN did, too. CBS did also. I shared the cartoon with USA Today, too.

At 2 a.m. my Twitter began to go off like a slot machine. Instagram and Facebook did, too. And much to my surprise, 99.8 percent of the comments were positive. So I got mostly positive comments on Twitter, and Fox News and CNN agreed on something.

If Bigfoot had come in the room with a cup of coffee, I would’ve been less surprised.

Then I got an email from a mother who shared her story about losing her child and the conversation they had.

Then someone began cutting onions in the room.

George Bush’s passing hit me harder than I expected. Not necessarily because of his politics. Or even nostalgia. No, it’s something much deeper. Maybe it’s because he represents one of the last presidents from a rapidly fading generation. Maybe it was because I had gotten a glimpse of the kindness of the Bush family after the first cartoon. Or maybe it just seemed like a piece of our nation’s civility had just passed away.

Bush showed you could disagree and still be civil. He didn’t have to be uncivil to prove he was tough. I thought about his relationships with Bill Clinton, Mississippi’s former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery and, of course, Barbara. I could hear his voice proclaim that we’d be a “kinder and gentler nation” as he accepted the Republican nomination. I miss those days.

Many of my cartoons about George H.W. Bush weren’t flattering. But this one is. Godspeed, President Bush. I know you, Barbara and Robin are sharing one giant hug right now.